Former Palm boss leaves webOS post

Mark Raby, 12th July 2011

Jon Rubenstein, the former CEO of Palm who joined HP in last year's acquisition, has been reassigned.

Instead of heading up the company's webOS division, which had been his baby up to this point, Rubenstein is now working in the "Personal Systems Group" department.

This means he is now in charge of many more product categories, and will help oversee the development of new consumer electronic devices throughout HP.

Meanwhile, fellow executive Stephen Dewitt will now be in charge of webOS, taking on Rubenstein's responsibilities in development, engineering, marketing, and everything else related to the nascent operating system.

It appears to be part of an entire shake-up on the webOS side of the company. As Rubenstein leaves what HP used to call the "Palm division," it has been renamed the "webOS Global Business Unit."

It was Rubenstein's leadership, or lack thereof, that many pointed to as a key reason why Palm dug a hole it couldn't get out of and HP was able to swoop in and buy for a song.

When Palm publicly went up for sale, it even had a hard time finding a buyer, despite the fact that the company used to be one of the great entities in the mobile industry.

So it makes sense that HP would want to shift Rubenstein's focus now that the company has assumedly learned everything about the inner workings of Palm and its products.